How Could You?
by skulduggery96
Summary: The Doctor can't stand the thought of life without the Master, so he brings him back. But things don't go as planed when the Master says he was happier dead, when the drums were silent. Now the Doctor must try to convince his old friend - turned enemy - that life is worth living again...but will the Master listen?
1. Chapter 1

**Summery:** The Doctor can't stand the thought of life without the Master, so he brings him back. But things don't go as planed when the Master says he was happier dead, when the drums were silent. Now the Doctor must try to convince his old friend that life is worth living again...but will the Master listen?

**Pairing:** Tenth Doctor/The Master (Not that you can really tell from this part...can you?)

* * *

**How Could You?**

* * *

Silence.

There was absolute silence in this world. Nothing, no light, no sound and barley even any thought was able to survive in this world. The master at first had been confused, terrified and then ecstatic when he realized that the drumming, the stupid awful drumming that had haunted him all his living days, was _gone._

He'd never been happier. Sure, he was dead and would probably never have any other companionship again, but they'd stopped. He'd tried finding ways before, before he'd ever given into them, to the drums, but whatever he found never quiet worked for long. Now though, silence filled his mind.

It made him feel calm, joyful and..._at peace._ He honestly hadn't felt like this since he'd turned eight years of age, when he had to look into the Untempered Schism of time.

He smiled, or at least he had the thought that he smiled. He still didn't know where he was, but he was pretty sure that at the moment it didn't matter. He either figured it out or he wouldn't, as long as the drums never came back.

The Master relaxed, letting himself drift along, uncaring about what his life had come to. Really if he'd known death would have stopped the drumming, he'd have done it eons ago himself. Well, he'd have done it if he'd been sane enough to at least.

He heard something.

_No._ Surely it was what was left of his damaged mind playing a final prank on itself, it wasn't as if he'd heard - _boom, boom, boom,_ _boom._  
The Master felt like screaming as he made out the faint sound, the sound that was steadily growing louder the more time passed.

_Boom, boom, boom, boom. _Why? He was finally at peace for Rassilons sake! _BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM._ The Master could feel it, the madness creeping back along with the drumming. Fear coursed through him. It was just like before, when he was a child staring into all of time and space, seeing how insignificant they all were, how insignificant _he_ was.

_**BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!**_

He felt himself beginning to drown. It was happening all over again, they were taking over and he was losing himself to the sound of drums.

_Please work. Just please, come back, I promise that I'll take care of you, just please, we're the only ones left._

The Master frowned as those words trickled in past the pounding drums, weaving its way toward a part of him long since thought gone. _Theta?_ He frowned, why would-

_Just work already! Please just come back, you've never given up before so don't you dare start now, Master!_

It finally struck him as to what was happening. The Doctor was bringing him back, and the drums were coming with. His being shook and the drums became louder, threating to shake him apart with the sheer force of them. He had to stop it, somehow he had to stay dead, stay here were he was finally at peace.

He started fighting. Just like before, when he'd fought the drums as a child until he couldn't anymore, he fought to stay dead. The irony wasn't lost on him, the Master who'd fought so hard to stay alive multiple times throughout his lives was now fighting to stay _dead._ He would laugh if the situation wasn't so urgently dire.

**BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!**

_Please..._

No, they were getting louder!

_Please, just one more time Master, fight it!_

That's exactly what he was attempting!

**BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!**

Everything stilled, a long intense quiet enveloping the Master, silencing even the drums. He knew right away though, that this was not a peaceful quiet. It was the quiet before the storm, so to speak.

From the far off corner of his hearts, from a deep place that the Master had locked away centuries ago, came a burst of feeling so enormous that he would have doubled over in pain had he possessed a body. _Theta no! Please don't do it! NO!_

Suddenly the silence surrounding him seemed to burst, much like a bubble, and everything rushed into him at once. Pain, cold, hot, hunger, sadness, anger, desperation, but most of all, he felt himself being buried under the enormous sound of drums.

An image of his younger self came to mind, a face many lives long since passed, gasping and pleading for help as the sound of drums dragged him under again, to be replaced with that of the drums servant, the Master.

**BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!** **BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!**

_Please come back..._

**BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!**

_KOSCHEI!_

His eyes snapped open, a scream escaping from his mouth as his body convulsed, shock and pain repelling from his every nerve while his body worked to start all systems on full. His brown eyes met those of the Doctors, whose hands where holding him down to stop any self harmed injuries from accruing.

The Master opened his mouth, and it may have been his voice and body, but it was Koschei who spoke while looking at the Doctor with betrayal filling his eyes, _"How could you?" _Was all he spoke before darkness yet again claimed him.

Though deeply in the darkness of his own mind, where even his own thoughts were stopped due to the shock of life again, the never-ending drumming had started again.

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Hello everyone,

First I would like to thank all of you for reaching the end of this fanfiction, so please tell me what you like or didn't like in the comment box below and I will try to incorporate that into my next piece of fiction. Also this is my first published work of Doctor Who. Now...even though I like it, I still don't know if I'm going to continue it. If I do I already have a semi idea forming in the back of my mind as to the length and direction of this story.

So, again please tell me what you liked/hated about this, favorite, share, follow and all those lovely things that has set up for us.

Good-Bye.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Well, here's the second part, let me know what you all think!

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**How Could You?  
Part Two**

* * *

He'd done it.

The Doctor sat in a chair next to the Masters bed in the hospital wing of the TARDIS, just...watching. He had no idea what to really do with himself once the revival process was over, so he'd grabbed a chair next to another cot, brought it over and just sat waiting. That was over three hours ago, but still he decided that he'd wait.

He'd done it. The thought raced around his mind again, making him both delighted and forlorn. Happy, because he had brought his old friend back from the mostly dead state he'd been found in, but forlorn because the look the Master had held in his eyes...

_"How could you?"_

The Doctor sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face and through his hair, making it spike up in different directions. The Time Lord wished that the Master would just wake up already, though he did understand that his body needed rest to recharge itself. He sighed again. What had the Master meant by, "How could you?"...well he had it half figured out, but he wanted the other man awake so that they could talk about and confirm his suspicion.

He stood to stretch, loosening his stiff limbs and back. The Doctors eyes glanced toward the nearest medical cot, to the Masters sleeping form, and finally latched onto the body scan connected to his patient. Everything so far had checked out normal, but did that mean it was acceptable for him to rest?

He thought about it a moment, letting his mind play over the idea. He didn't normally need sleep, that is in no way implying that he _didn't_ rest, but Time Lords as a biological rule do not need as much sleep as other species, such as humans did. He was awfully tired though, and he could feel it creeping into the others parts of his body, making his sluggish. If he was too tired, he wouldn't be able to take of the Master when he awoke.

The Doctor sighed, just a nap then he decided.

* * *

_Light filtered in through the silver leaves, turning the forest clearing into a blazing bowl of light. Koschei had to squint his eyes to see through the glare as he walked toward a lone figure laying amongst the red grass, the boys hands covering his face from the sun._

_"What are you doing, Theta?" A small sigh fell from Thetas mouth, fingers spreading so his eyes could peek through, "Nothing." The older boy raised an eyebrow, "Nothing? Okay, did I happen to mention that I know when you're lying?"_

_Theta groaned, "Koschei just...please, not right now," And with that he rolled onto his side, away from his now very worried friend. Koschei didn't understand what was happening, normally out of the two of them, Theta was the one you had to tie up for even a moments piece to pass, but here his friend was, laying in a field of red grass...moping._

_"Theta, what's wrong?" Kneeling on the ground next to him, Koschei reached out a hand to brush against Thetas bangs, only to have said hand knocked away. "Koschei, I said no!"_

_The young Time Lord sat stunned, his eyes staring at the harshly rejected hand._

_Theta had...he'd just..._

_Theta had_ never, _in all these past months of friendship, hit his hand away in anger. Friendly annoyance, yes, but never anger. What in the name of Rassilon had happened?!_

_"Theta," Scooting closer, the young man tried to keep the hurt from his voice, "What's happened?" A long moment of silence passed as nether spoke, one attempting to figure out an answer while the other quietly chewed on his lower lip. After a while Theta sighed and quietly said, "I...hurt myself by accident in class today, the burn still smarts."_

_Koschei frowned, released his bottom lip and asked, "Burn, what burn?" This time he simply grabbed Theta by the shoulder and rolled him onto his back, leaning over to begin checking him for the injury. Theta rolled his eyes before closing them, raised his left hand, turning it so that the bottom of his hand faced the sky, reveling a rather nasty burn that reached from his wrist to the top of his thumb._

_Koschei heard himself gasp, that absolutely looked frightening, how on Gallifrey did Theta not run screaming to the healers room? While he looked at the wound, gently turning it this way and that, he had to wonder again what had happened. Theta was not normally this reckless, sure the occasional cut here or there, maybe even a stubbed toe along with a black eye from roughhousing with his friend...but this?_

_No. Something else had happened, something that for whatever reason, Theta was decidedly _not _telling him._

_An image flashed in his mind, the image was of a boy only a year or two older than Koschei was himself, but this boy held a horrible grin as he called a number of students unsavory names, even sending a few of the girls off to the washroom in tears. Koschei himself had been unlucky enough to met the boy, the event ending with both of them threatening the wellbeing of the other. Torvic was his name, and he took regular classes with Theta._

_Koschei slowly lowered his hands, still holding gently onto Thetas burned one, and said quietly, "It was Torvic."_

_Theta visibly stiffened before jerkily nodding his head in conformation. Koschei hissed, "How, and why didn't you tell the teacher?!" The young mans eyes snapped open, fixing him to the spot with the intensity of it's look, "Because his father is the one in charge of chemical class!" Theta quickly sat up and turned toward his angry friend, un-concisely making sure that his hand stayed in the others grip._

_"Koschei, how would it have looked if I had said something, when only yesterday you called Torvic an "illiterate dung beetle"...even after you poured the juice over his head?"_

_Koschei glared, "He deserved it. But that was me, so why on Rassilons life would that affect you?" Theta blinked, tried to pull his hand away but felt Koschei's grip tighten, "Because...we're friends and Torvic knows this, and so does his father. If I said anything..." Theta frowned as he tried to pull his hand away, but was again stopped._

_"Alright, that _explains _that, but why didn't you tell _me?_" He just didn't understand, why would Theta avoid him all day while trying to hide this from him? In the back of his mind, the constant four beat sound increased. Thetas eyes slid side ways, and he shrugged._

_Koschei felt his head beginning to pound as his anger grew, along with that of the annoying drumming sound. "Theta, why didn't you tell me? There's something else that your leaving out isn't there?!" Theta suddenly glared at him, yanking his hand back, "It's none of your business Koschei! Why don't you just-," Boom, boom, boom, boom._

_...What?_

_The young man shook his head, "What did you just say?" Theta glared at him, opened his mouth and said something else, something that Koschei was sure that he was supposed to be listening to, but all he heard was that horrible four beat sound._

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

_He clutched his head, the pounding getting worse as time passed. He noticed that the red grass around him was starting to dull, the sunlight had begun to fade, and Theta...Theta was suddenly gone and in his place was another man, one that Koschei was instantly and un-rationally afraid of. He fell back, one hand held in front of him while the other stayed clutched to his head._

_The man was tall and skinny, clothed in a blue suit with brown overcoat. Koschei didn't recognize him and kept scrambling backwards, even as his eyes searched around frantically for Theta. "What did you do with Theta?!" Koschei yelled at the man, trying to hide how frightened he was. Normally no one could sneak up on him, especially when he was with Theta. His senses just seemed to always tell him when others were near._

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

_The man stood absolutely still, in the same place that his friend had once been, just staring at him with an intense look in his gaze. Koschei glanced around the clearing, his eyes blowing wide as he took in the once red grass that was now blackened, the bright silver tree leaves as if they never were and the bright sunlight now a dull glow blocked by several cloud formations._

_The pounding in his head worsened, the drums grew louder and all the while the man just...stood there. What was happening?_

_Koschei winced as something nagged at his memory, something important, something about...a doctor? No, the Doctor...who had done, something wrong? Horrible?_

_Something entirely _unforgivable.

**_BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! _**

_Koschei eyes closed as a memory washed over him, the sound of a gunshot, the smell of gunpowder mixed with blood and tears...The Doctor pleading with him to regenerate. The Doctor, the man who used to be Theta._

_He was dreaming, about the past. Dreaming about a past before he and The- the Doctor were ever enemy's toward each other. Though now it seemed to have seeped into being a true dream, rather than that of remembering something from days gone by._

_Koschei sighed and dropped back toward the grass, suddenly not as terrified of his surroundings as he'd been a moment ago. It was all a dream anyway, so why be bothered by it? "I died, and you brought me back Doctor...even though I screamed for you not too." Shutting his eyes, he ignored the trails of water trickling down his face, and decided that he'd had enough of dreaming of the past._

* * *

The Masters eyes snapped open, the dream landscape seeping away to revel the emergency room within the TARDIS. His entire body ached, but he suspects that's what happens when you've come back from the dead, entirely unwilling of course.

He sat up slowly, wincing as his whole being protested the movement. His tongue felt as if it had been swapped out with sandpaper while his throat acted as if he'd gone and drank liquid fire. His eyes blinked several times to try to adjust to the lighting of the TARDIS, which to him were bright enough to blind someone. He strongly suspected that the Doctor had turned up the volume of light just for him when he woke.

The thought of the other Time Lord caused him to still. If he was in the TARDIS, then were was the Doctor? It was hardly likely that the man would leave the Master alone, not after everything that had happened in the past between them.

The Master glanced around till they came to a stop on the sleeping form of his long time archenemy, who'd decided that the nearby medical cot would do for a quick nap.

...Since when had it become acceptable for one to sleep in the presence of the _enemy?!_

The Master growled, swung his legs off the side and stood on shaky legs with his arms behind him, holding onto the cot for support. Looking around he noticed that the body scan was still locked onto him and he frowned, leaning closer. The machine said that he'd been out for nearly four hours, his vitals were a little elevated and the thing certainly showed that certain parts of his Time Lord brain were in overdrive at the moment. Gee, he wondered why?

He shook his head, turning to glare at the still sleeping, lanky-oaf. The Master heard the drums, could feel them pressing against the insides of his brain, and even though they were relatively quiet at the moment, he knew they wouldn't be for long.

So that meant he had one of three choices, one: Kill the Doctor, two: Leave the man alone and break free of the TARDIS and continue wreaking havoc as the drums bade him to do...or three: Kill himself, to forever stop the drums within his mind again.

The Master sighed, he much preferred it back when he _didn't_ know how to be without the drums felt. His anger flared and so did the drums. He was at peace, no longer suffering the noise of four, and this _sentimental idiot_ had brought him back?!

Why- his mind quickly flashed back to the dream/memory of Theta, his childhood friend. His anger wavered. Why for the sake of the twin moons was he even thinking, let alone dreaming about something that had happened several lifetimes ago, in his _childhood?_

He shook his head, more than likely being dead had caused some of his brain cells to begin malfunctioning, that was really the only explanation as to why he was standing around raging inside his head rather than already having his fingers wrapped tightly around the Doctors throat.

The Master muttered under his breath after taking a single step and almost falling straight to the floor, luckily having caught the edge of the medical bed. Sending another glare toward the _still _sleeping man, the Master took another step, deciding that if the oaf was going to sleep with an unrestrained enemy beside him, he might as well take the time to actually escape the TARDIS...maybe even mess with a few gravity controls along the way.

Before he could take another step though, a loud screeching noise filled the room and his hands flew to his ears as his dropped to the floor, the impact jarring his knees.

The Doctor woke with a startled shout, shooting up to a sitting position with his eyes wide, looking at the ceiling. The screeching noise instantly silenced itself and the Master realized that the TARDIS had activated the emergency alarm to wake the Doctor.

Though, why didn't it do that when he'd first woken up?

The Master hissed as the pain from his knees slamming against the floor finally registered with him now that the stupid alarm had gone, drawing the Doctors attention toward his kneeling form. His eyes raised to met those of The Doctors. For a moment both Time Lords just stared at each other, one entirely unsure of what to say while the other was calculating the time it'd take to knock a certain lanky oaf out, before running out the TARDIS doors to relative safety.

After another long moment of simply staring, The Doctor quickly jumped up and off the medical cot and ran toward the Master, "What are you doing out of bed? Have you even had any water? How are you feeling? Any lingering sensations of-," "Stop it!" The Master roughly interrupted the Doctors rapid fire questioning, slapping away the hands that had been trying to lift him.

He pulled away, a hurt look crossing over his face before it was quickly hidden behind the usual mask he wore, "I'm only trying to help," Said the Doctor in an even tone, hands held out before him as to not provoke the scowling Time Lord.

"Only trying to help?" The words left the Masters mouth in a hiss, enough venom in that one sentence to kill an army of Daleks. The Doctor swallowed, but continued to look his old friend in the eyes as he nodded. The Master continued to glare.

The Doctor was lost. He hadn't really thought his idea through when he brought the Master back, only thinking about how it _couldn't _simply end like this, with the Master dead, and he, still the crazy man in a blue box traveling the vastness of time and space all alone. It had just...he simply could not let it be like that, and damned the consequences.

Though it did seem that the consequences would be a tremendous hurdle for him, if the look the Master was sending his way was any indication of the future.

Still glaring at the Doctor, The Master thought about his new options, one: Knock out or kill the man, and somehow escape the TARDIS, or two: Stay and rest up, because whither he liked to admit it or not, he wasn't going to be able to do _a blasted thing_ when he was this weak. The pounding in his head increased, but he pushed the feeling aside, used to the drumming's fluctuating tendencies.

The Master realized that for the past five to even twenty minutes, all they'd been doing was sitting on the floor starring at each other with weary looks and angry scowls. He huffed and let his back rest against a nearby bed leg, his eyes falling to his hands. The Doctor raised an eyebrow in question, "Find something funny?" The Master glanced up at him, a small smile playing on his lips, "You know Doctor, I've always prided myself on how evil I am. But never once would I have thought that you'd take up my mantle after I died."

At this the Time Lord frowned in confusion, "What are talking about?" The Master had a full on smirk now, his voice dripping with repressed hate, "The drums were silent."

...oh.

The Doctor felt any and all argument that had automatically built up inside his mind crumble to dust at those four spoken words. The drums, whither they were real or not, had finally been silenced with The Masters death...and he'd brought him back from the peace he'd found.

He cleared his throat and asked quietly, "Are they back too than?"

_"What the hell do you think?!"_ Was the bitten back response, followed by an uncomfortable silence that threatened to choke him.

Well, he had certainly bullocks things up in the past before, but this time, it seemed like a well placed argument and a wave of the sonic screwdriver weren't going to fix things.

* * *

Hello everyone,

Again, thank you for reading this far and for trying out my story. I would also like to give a personal shout out to **Jill, Mabudachi-trio, **and **Loupdu77 **- in that order! - for being the first ones to review this story! Thank you guys very much, you got me so pumped up that I wrote this chapter surprisingly fast, hope I didn't disappoint you. Next are **Mabudachi-trio **_(again!)_ and **MarvelGirl52** for following this story, thank you very much again!

I hope that this part wasn't all to bad, normally I don't really like what I've written, but I expect good constructive criticism from those who comment on this, so please do not forget to do so.

Thank you.


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